Students succeed to History Day and science state fairs

As the school year wraps up its odds and ends, Saratoga High showed off its top entries and projects at History Day and science state fairs.

Qualifiers included 31 students who showcased 16 total entries at the History Day State Fair and two students who presented their projects at the California State Science Fair.

‘Debate and diplomacy’ at History Day’s state level

For the first time in history, the school saw three of its students’ projects qualify for the National History Day competition to be held from June 12-16 at the University of Maryland.

The prerequisites were the school, county and state competitions. Judging at the state level was held at the Double Tree Airport Hotel in San Jose on April 30.

Winners successfully tied a historical event to this year’s theme, “Debate and Diplomacy: Successes, Failures and Consequences.” Junior Ariella Yendler’s individual performance on the Scopes Monkey Trial, juniors Christine Tseng, Sanjana Chetia and Jennifer Yang’s group documentary on Japanese Internment during WWI and freshman Anushree Dugar’s historical paper on the Colorado River Compact trumped the other entries that reached the state level from each of the nine presentation categories. Of the 232 entries at the state level, these students will be among the 18 high school entries to represent California at the national competition.

Junior David Eng’s individual website on the Iran-Contra Affair and junior Myron Zhang’s historical paper on the Cuban Missile Crisis placed third, making them the first runners-up within their respective categories.

Eng was also given the Webmasters Special Award. Dugar received the A.P. Malvino Award, awarded to students for using clear writing to present complicated topics.

Dugar, the only freshman from Saratoga High to participate in History Day, is additionally the school’s only student to have reached the national level in the past.

“I’m really excited. I decided to do [a History Day project] in eighth grade because I had heard about it, and I like history a lot,” Dugar explained.

Dugar looks forward to the national competition after her positive experience from last year.

“There was a big parade, and I met students from all over the country,” Dugar said.

Science projects navigate to state contest

A few days after the National History Day competition, sophomore David Zarrin and junior David Eng represented Saratoga High in the California State Science Fair. The fair was from May 2-3 at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. These two were among the 60 students to qualify for the state fair from the approximate 1,000 students who participated in the Synopsis Science Fair.

Neither won awards, but Zarrin received special recognition for being one of 10 students to have reached the state fair level five times.

Zarrin’s project was a “centimeter-accurate indoor navigation system that is commercially plausible.”

Using a process he coined radio oscillation, Zarrin created a navigation method that is cheaper and more precise than many of the devices today. The device helps one find anything, from a seat in a restaurant to the fire exit of a burning building.

Eng’s project centered around the effect of septins—a special type of protein—on a host cell’s ability to endocytose the fungus Candida albicans.

The project directly influences membrane biology, according to Eng. Its research can help synthesize agents that fight the disease caused by this fungus.

With this being Eng’s first year participating in a science fair, Eng was happy to reach the state level.

“I was grateful for the opportunity to compete this year and felt honored to represent my county alongside such qualified peers,” Eng said.